Building Community and Identity for Young People Who Experience Disdvantage
Our final forum for the year focused on supporting young people to develop their sense of identity, personal competence and belonging by connecting them with local community organisations and resources.
'I wanted to do something my Mum and Dad would be proud of'
Louise Nobes, founder of Kik Innovation, spoke about her personal passion to help end youth unemployment by engaging young people in 'entrepreneurial doing'.
Over three years, her organisation has created multiple businesses and provided practical training to 85 disdavantaged youth, with over three quarters of these moving into employment. Louise is now working on her next venture which is to bring an international training program in computer coding to Australia. Louise says the only condition for entry is that applicants will have to demonstrate their talent by getting to a certain level in a video game. With fully funded scholarships available, and excellent job prospects being predicted for graduates, Louise says the course will give many more disadvantaged young people an exciting and more certain future.
'Once you know what a successful transition looks like you want to work really hard to ensure every young person has the same opportunity'
Gus Fowler and Leeanne Marshall spoke about their experiences in making the transition to life after school, and how low expectations and inappropriate support often lead to poor outcomes for young people with disability and mental health conditions.
They described their work as peer leaders in the Aspire workshop program which is designed to equip students with the knowledge and skills they need to plan their careers and effectively advocate for themselves.
Gus and Leeanne stressed that the program gives schools access to a 'ready-made' resource for a reasonable price, and that feedback has confirmed the relationship between the peer leaders and program participants is a huge success factor.
